It's no fun when you need to wrap a gift for a 35-year-old dude, but find that your wrapping paper supply only includes leftovers from bridal- and baby-shower gifts. I've previously written about the versatility of silver for all purposes, but Fabio Milito has one-upped that with "Wordless" crossword wrapping paper. Simply highlight the relevant occasion, slap on a bow, and you're good to go! It's the Swiss Army knife of gifting - and one that you might want to keep handy.
[via Dornob]

Plants eventually outgrow their pots like kids outgrow their shoes - but just like the recently-covered Shoe That Grows, a clever design can allow the pot to grow with the plant. Studio Ayaskan's GROWTH does so with a clever origami-inspired design, which seems to look quite elegant at all three stages shown here - though I wonder about any awkward half-unfolded middle stages. Regardless, I'd welcome the liberation from having to re-pot plants!
[via MentalFloss - thanks for the tip, Jess!]

Of the many ways to communicate quality in a product, weight is perhaps the easiest to fake. In many physical products, high-performance components simply weigh more; thus, heavier or denser products deliver the impression of quality. Unlike build tolerances and genuine materials, however, weight can be inexpensively added just for weight's sake. It seems that's the case with the headphones shown in Bolt's teardown on Medium, where almost a third of the overall weight is due to superfluous metal pieces. It's worth noting that headphones are a product where extra weight actually detracts from the real use experience - but still, the weight adds to the perceived quality, and users may even experience a placebo effect. We humans are pretty easy to trick!
[via Gizmodo]